Central Synagogue in New York Marks 120th Anniversary of Existence

January 16, 1967

NEW YORK (Jan. 15)

The Central Synagogue, one of the oldest houses of worship in New York, today marked its 120th anniversary at a gathering attended by prominent civic and Jewish communal leaders. The Reform synagogue was founded by 18 young men who had emigrated from Bohemia, now part of Czechoslovakia. Rabbi Isaac Meyer Wise, a founder of Reform Judaism in this country, laid the cornerstone of the synagogue which has played a part in the historic development of the Reform movement.

Rabbi Jacob J. Weinstein, president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, who addressed the gathering, called upon religious leaders to convince their congregants that the Vietnam war must be brought to the peace table as soon as possible. He said that, regardless of the divided opinion within religious groups on the pursuit of the war and its final outcome, “it is the bounden duty of religion to create a climate which will bring about a condition where religiously motivated individuals demand peaceful solutions.”